5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (And Other Useful Guides)

by The Oatmeal, Matthew Inman

Overview

Prepare to laugh your ass off. The hilarity of TheOatmeal.com is now presented in book form with 35 never-before-seen pieces and 25 classic favorites from the Web site, including 6 Types of Crappy Hugs and 17 Things Worth Knowing about Your Cat.

In Matthew Inman's New York Times best selling 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (And Other Useful Guides), samurai sword-wielding kittens and hamsters that love .50-caliber machine guns commingle with a cracked out Tyrannosaur that is extremely hard to potty train. Bacon is better than true love and you may awake in the middle of the night to find your nephew nibbling on your toes.

Inman creates these quirky scenes for theoatmeal.com, which launched in July 2009 and already has more than 82 million page views. In fact, every 15 to 30 seconds, someone Googles one of theoatmeal.com's creations. Now, 60 of Inman's comic illustrations and life-bending guides are presented in full-color inside 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (And Other Useful Guides). Consider such handy advice as: 4 Reasons to Carry a Shovel at All Times, 6 Types of Crappy Hugs, 8 Ways to Tell if Your Loved One Plans to Eat You, 17 Things Worth Knowing About Your Cat, and 20 Things Worth Knowing About Beer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449401160
Publisher:	Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publication date:	03/01/2011
Series:	Oatmeal , #1
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	383,067
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Matthew Inman is the Eisner Award-winning creator of The Oatmeal and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You. Matthew also co-created the popular Exploding Kittens card game. Since being founded in 2009, his work on TheOatmeal.com has been read by over 300 million people.

Editorial Reviews

Launched in mid-2009, theoatmeal.com is a relative web newcomer, but that doesn't mean that it's still an internet secret: In fact, The Oatmeal already receives more visitors than high traffic sites including I Can Has Cheezburger, Awkward Family Photos, and Tucker Max. The reasons for its popularity becomes vividly clear by perusing this collection of crazy cartoon wisdom. With this guide in hand, for example you will learn the six reasons bacons is better than true love ("Love is fleeting, but bacon stays in your arteries for all eternity") and the six phases of a tapeworm's life (you don't want to ask.) Hilarious reading for people who secretly resent dolphins.

Social etiquette, animals, rules of grammar, and more are critiqued in ways ranging from the educational to the bizarre in this collection of comic strips from TheOatmeal.com. While proceeding directly from the newspaper strip tradition, these Web comics present observational humor that's a little more vulgar, a little more clever, and a little more likely to end up with the reader actually learning something than would have been printed in a nationally syndicated comic strip. The humor, like many classic comics, is based on Andy Rooneyesque shared experiences, such as "10 Reasons to Avoid Talking on the Phone," "How to Use a Semicolon (The Most Feared Punctuation on Earth)," and "How to Track, Hunt, and Kill a Unicorn." These are presented in a text-heavy style supplemented with basic, XKCD-like drawings. While the collection is erratic, some of the best strips—many dealing with cats—hit the universal funny bone. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Matthew Inman is the Gary Larson of the Internet age." (Ken Wheaton, Advertising Age)

"If Inman isn't a king of the Internet, he's certainly among its royalty. The Oatmeal is one of the most popular humor sites on the web." (Todd Leopold, CNN)

"In 2009, Inman put his hand to the page, and the world hasn't stopped laughing since." (Nick Carbone, Time)

"Dangerously funny." (TODAY.com)

"Delightfully absurd musings on both everyday life and fantasy from an unusually creative mind." (Kirkus Reviews)

From the Publisher

Quirky, irreverent comic strips loaded with interesting and eclectic observations about the today's society.

Web designer turned comic artist MatthewInman (theoatmeal.com) offers a collection of cartoons that have appeared on his website over the past year, including some new material created especially for his debut release. Inman says his goal "is to entertain, inform, and offend." He succeeds on all counts. Part sophisticated observation of modern society and part frat-boy humor, the book constantly surprises. His webcomics offer an ironic, hilarious and ultimately honest portrayal of everyday life—see one man's descent into madness while trying to speak to an actual person in customer service. The unexpected awaits the reader at every turn. Browse through "7 Ways To Keep Your Tyrannosaur Off Crack Cocaine" before learning about Nikola Tesla and the development of AC electricity. A new-age Emily Post with a deep sarcastic undertone, Inman highlights a variety of social etiquette mistakes: "The 9 Types of Crappy Handshakes" is an especially effective greeting guide. The book contains some of the best explanations of how to use a semi-colon and sheds light on other grammarian pet peeves. The pullout poster on the end flap, "Why I Believe Printers Were Sent from Hell to Make Us Miserable," will strike a responsive chord in anyone who has struggled with the simplest of modern technology.

Delightfully absurd musings on both everyday life and fantasy from an unusually creative mind.

Kirkus Reviews